Bersih5 leader detained on eve of rally
KUALA LUMPUR: The police arrested Bersih5 leader Maria Chin Abdullah and a leading Bersih activist, Mandeep Singh in a raid on the group’s offices yesterday afternoon.
Bersih in a statement said yesterday police and officials from the Companies Commission had taken part in the raid and seized computers and documents in the office.
Chin, who was among more than 10 activists arrested including from DAP and Red Shirts, was to be investigated under a law prohibiting acts that “threaten parliamentary democracy while Singh was arrested on suspicion of violating an antirioting law.
Police said they plan to hold the pair at least overnight.
Despite the raid and the detention of Chin and Singh organisers of Bersih5 remained defiant vowing to go ahead with today’s nationwide rally against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak over 1MDB.
“The rally will definitely go ahead. There is no turning back,” Bersih steering committee member Jay Jay Denis said yesterday.
Bersih5 is the second mass protest against 1MDB in 15 months.
The previous rally drew tens of thousands of Bersih yellow shirt supporters to two days of peaceful protests here and other locations in August last year to demand Najib’s removal over the scandal.
Human Rights Society chairwoman Ambiga Sreenevasan, Bersih’s former chief, said in a text message the demonstrations would go on despite the arrests.
Bersih, along with several other groups, is being investigated after reports that it received funds from Open Society Foundations, an organisation linked to business tycoon George Soros.
In a radio address yesterday, Najib dismissed Bersih as a “deceitful” tool of the opposition seeking “to unseat a democratically-elected government”.
Today’s protest marks the finale of a seven-week Bersih campaign to highlight the scandal across the country and prevent it being swept under the rug by the government.
Tensions have soared ahead of today’s rally due to threats by Jamal Yunos, the leader of the “Red Shirts” to mobilise its supporters and block Bersih from gathering.